Letters to the editor

Give back through Fire Safe Council

No sooner had the last fires gone out and the smoke blown away after the Witch Creek Fire in 2007 than my wife and I got a call from our neighbor asking if we wanted to talk with other property owners about fire protection.

Unprecedented fires had devastated Ramona twice in four years. These weren’t 50-year or 100-year fires anymore. They could come any time.

Everyone wanted to do something to be better prepared. We attended the meeting, and it was the beginning of a five-year long adventure with our neighbors who selflessly volunteered their time and energy to build what is known today as the Ramona Fire Safe Council (RFSC), a non-profit, tax-exempt California corporation. This organization seeks public and private funding to assist creating and maintaining defensible space, and other means of protecting homes and property from wildfire.

Personal need and full-time work have necessitated that we end our membership with this great group of folks on the Council in December 2012. We want to thank Kristi Mansolf, Kathy and Vern Kilcrease, Larry and Page Gordon and Rob Inglis, who continue to carry on this valuable work.

We encourage anyone who has ever wanted to be a volunteer and give back to this great community we all love, to check out the Fire Safe Council at www.ramonawestendfiresafecouncil.org or call Kristi Mansolf at 760-445-8545 (email: kmansolf@gmail.com).

Doug and Carole Funk

Ramona

Humane Society thanks community

The Escondido Humane Society held an Adoption and Canned Food and Towel Drive Event at Kahoots on Feb. 16. We would like to thank the community of Ramona for all the generous donations we received.The towels are used for bathing and bedding and were greatly needed. Canned food is always needed and was very much appreciated as was the monetary donations, toys and blankets.Also, thanks for all the attention our dogs received. Thank you again Ramona, the Sentinel and Kahoots for your support.

Debbie Peters and Hope Tileston

Escondido Humane Society Volunteers

How useful is finding fault?

Nobody is perfect, so any idiot can find fault with others. But how useful is it to keep doing this?Instead, perhaps the Democrats could try to find a way to approve, just a little bit of something Republican. They could try to make Republicans feel good.Surprised, but feeling good, Republicans might try for more. They might try to do a little something else to gain further approval from the Democrats. Eventually, feeling magnanimous, they might even return the favor. They might try, just a little, to make Democrats feel good by approving of something Democratic.Approval can work wonders with kids. And nobody can deny that the goings-on in Washington these days seem hopelessly childish.